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‘We are living through a period of extreme narcissism,’ Conan O’Brien tells graduates at Harvard’s commencement
CAMBRIDGE â With a mix of nostalgic quips and political barbs, comedian Conan OâBrien delivered Harvardâs 375th commencement address on Thursday, urging graduates to demonstrate humility and empathy in their lives while mocking the Trump administration for its relentless attacks on his alma mater.
âWe are living through a period of extreme narcissism,â said OâBrien, a Brookline native. âOur current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness, and that our nation stands supreme and alone. Add to that, everyone here today has a phone in their pocket that is algorithmically programmed to celebrate you and you alone, by making you the protein-maxing hero of your own special journey.â
Five recognized with honorary degrees
Conan O’Brien (clockwise from left), Audra McDonald, Noel Malcolm, Peggy Noonan, and Geoffrey Hinton.
A collection of features and graduate profiles covering Harvard’s 375th Commencement.
The University will confer five honorary degrees during Thursday’s Commencement ceremony.
The man who has been twice dubbed the Godfather — of both AI and deep learning — earned his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence two decades before most people had personal computers, and more than 10 years before the internet became a go-to for news, email, and chat rooms.
But though he helped bring AI to the fore, Geoffrey Hinton has now become its prognosticator, speaking out about the dangers of deliberate misuse, technology-driven unemployment, and the existential risk of overdependence on artificial intelligence, rather than human brains. And despite many honors, including a Turning Award and a Nobel Prize in physics, he has said that a part of him regrets his life’s work.
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Harvard Confers Five Honorary Degrees at the 2026 Commencement
Front row, from left to right: Provost John F. Manning, President Alan M. Garber, and Conan O’Brien; back row, from left to right: Peggy Noonan, Geoffrey Hinton, Audra McDonald, and Sir Noel Malcolm | Photograph by Jennifer Carling /Harvard Magazine
During the 375th Commencement, Harvard conferred honorary degrees on five distinguished recipients, including journalist Peggy Noonan, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, and comedian Conan O’Brien. Three men and two women were honored:
Geoffrey Everest Hinton: A Britain-born computer scientist known for his early work on artificial neural networks, Hinton won the 2018 Turing Award for his work on deep learning. In 2024, he was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for “foundational discoveries” enabling machine learning using artificial neural networks. He used his Nobel acceptance speech to simultaneously emphasize the immense promise of AI to enhance productivity and the dangers that the technology amplifies, from mass surveillance to the potential creation of pandemic diseases and autonomous killing machines.
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